When the Bolsheviki seized the power of the state, they found themselves confronted by a terrific task.  Russia was utterly demoralized.  An undeveloped nation industrially, war and internal strife had wrought havoc with the industrial life she had.  Her railways were neglected and the whole transportation system, entirely inadequate even for peace needs, had, under the strain of the war, fallen into chaos.  After the March Revolution, as a natural consequence of the intoxication of the new freedom, such disciplines as had existed were broken down.  Production fell off in a most alarming manner.  During the Kerensky regime Skobelev, as Minister of Labor, repeatedly begged the workers to prove their loyalty to the Revolution by increased exertion and faithfulness in the workshops and factories.  The Bolsheviki, on their part, as a means of fighting the Provisional Government, preached the opposite doctrine, that of sabotage.  In every manner possible they encouraged the workers to limit production, to waste time and materials, strike for trivial reasons, and, in short, do all that was possible to defeat the effort to place industry upon a sound basis.

When they found themselves in possession of the powers of government the Bolshevik leaders soon had to face the stern realities of the conditions essential to the life of a great nation.  They could not escape the necessity of intensifying production.  They had not only promised peace, but bread, and bread comes only from labor.  Every serious student of the problem has realized that the first great task of any Socialist society must be to increase the productivity of labor.  It is all very well for a popular propaganda among the masses to promise a great reduction in the hours of labor and, at the same time, a great improvement in the standards of living.  The translation of such promises into actual achievements must prove to be an enormous task.  To build the better homes, make the better and more abundant clothing, shoes, furniture, and other things required to fulfil the promise, will require a great deal of labor, and such an organization of industry upon a basis of efficiency as no nation has yet developed.  If the working class of this or any other country should take possession of the existing organization of production, there would not be enough in the fund now going to the capitalist class to satisfy the requirements of the workers, even if not a penny of compensation were paid to the expropriated owners.  Kautsky, among others, has courageously faced this fact and insisted that “it will be one of the imperative tasks of the Social Revolution not simply to continue, but to increase production; the victorious proletariat must extend production rapidly if it is to be able to satisfy the enormous demands that will be made upon the new regime."[66] From the first this problem had to be faced by the Bolshevik government.  We find Lenine insisting that the workers must be inspired with “idealism, self-sacrifice, and persistence” to turn out as large a product as possible; that the productivity of labor must be raised and a high level of industrial performance as the duty of every worker be rigorously insisted upon.  It is not enough to have destroyed feudalism and the monarchy: